The alps
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Aaron Doss
Sep 16, 2006, 4:37:17 PM9/16/06
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Our Opel Corsa moving at 130km sounds like a drink blender. Top gear at 4500rpms. It also isn't economical on fuel at that speed, next time we are driving a rental in Europe I plan to get a mid sized car (which is the same as a small rental car in the states, Honda Civic sized). Enough about the car, the Dolomites were incredible, truly an unique range of mountains. We planned an easy loop hike of 18 km, starting in the little village of Sesto hiking up to altitude then around the pinnacles. Every 4-6 km there is a hutte where you can stay (typically for 15-20 euros per person) and you can get food/drinks/beer. We carried all our hiking gear so we could camp anywhere. Officially wild camping is not allowed in the area (actually in most of Europe) but it is usually tolerated if you keep a small, clean, out of sight camp. We decided to take our chances and camp. We had enough food and fuel for three days but only planned on two nights. The route was very, very pop!
ular, everyone had a smaller daypack and was well equipped for the simple few kilometers between huttes. I think we had the largest packs and were the only ones wearing lightweight trail runners. Everyone had normal hiking boots and a surprising number had mountaineering boots complete with insulated upper, rigid sole and toe and heel bales for crampons, they must have laughed at us just as we laughed at them. The trail itself was very easy like a sidewalk, almost always two meters wide and easily graded.
This part of northern Italy has historically been at conflict with Austria for control of the alps, thus after many generations of Austrian and Italian ownership the people here speak both German and Italian. Neither Nathalie or I speak Italian except for a few extremely important words, ex; Pizza, Pesto, Chianti, Spaghetti...
Nathalie, being able to understand German mostly conversed with the locals, unless they spoke English. Hearing all this German made us fell like we were in Austria instead of Italy. We resolved to go further south and find a place where people spoke Italian and the weather was better.
It's apparently an alpine tradition to drink beer at the huttes. Everyone was drinking beer and the menu reflected it, beers were 2.50 euros each and water was 3.50 per liter, the law of supply and demand at work.
A few qualms: water should never cost more than beer and water should also never cost more than autogas. The price of gas in Italy was around 1.30 per liter.
One has to wonder just how they get supplies to these alpine huttes in these spectacular locations. We found out that they are brought up the trails by a tractor, and if the location is too rugged a helicopter is used.
We expected much more natural water flowing in the valleys which we could filter from, but there was none. By the time we made it to the first hutte we were almost out of water and expecting to be able to get some. We didn't want to pay the high prices for water at the hutte so we decided to dry camp in a semi-hidden field just past the hutte. Later that night we saw figures in the distance, and the warm glow of a campfire. Earlier in the day we saw a group of teenagers carrying wood on their packs, we figured that they were the same people. Campfires are definitely not allowed, I was thinking of how rude they were when suddenly I noticed there were two fires and one was moving. The group approached our camp slowly, they were heading directly towards us, we turned out our lights and sat quietly in the dark, hoping they would not see us. In another minute they intercepted our camp, It was the same group of teenagers we saw earlier, they were carrying wooden torches fo!
r light, just like the type you see in Indiana Jones and countless other Hollywood movies. Being a pyromaniac I immediately wanted one.
Their torches seemed to be commercially made, something I have never seen in the states. The group walked by just 20 meters away from us, I am not sure if they saw us or not, if they did they did not acknowledge us at all. The rest of the night was quiet bliss.
The next morning we went to the next hutte to find water. We sat at a table got drinks, appelstrudel (a type of apple pie) and talked with a group of Italians who basically told us the only free water was located in the lakes along the trail. We continued on to the next lakes only 30 minutes away then filled up our water bottles. The weather was strongly overcast with a sea of low clouds clipping the pinnacles and surrounding peaks. It wasn't the photo weather I was hoping for, I really wanted to get some good direct warm sunset light on the pinnacles to show them off. It didn't seem like it was going to happen today either. We saw huge tour groups (60 people) who were bussed up to do some day hiking and touring of the huttes. We spent the day deliberately walking either faster or slower to dodge the crowds. At one point a large group stopped on the trail, looking off into the distance. It was immediately apparent that they were looking at some wild animal, a single !
marmot was sitting about 50 yards out. Being from Washington state where marmots are nearly pests (I call them large rats) I was surprised that this single animal could bring such a large group to a stop. Nathalie explained that seeing wild animals in europe is extremely rare and special, which explained the groups behavior. Though it seems like there is plenty of habitat to support some wildlife, my only guess is that there isn't a proper food chain to support a large quantity or variety of animals. I remember the first time Zack saw a marmot in the Sierras (there are no marmots in the south), I think he asked us if it was a baby bear or something, the situation would be reversed if we were to go to the south and see a possum (opossum?).
Since I mentioned Zack, I should relay that we got an email from him. He should be in Ashland Oregon now, his current plan is to 'flip' to the Canadian border and walk south down to Ashland. I know that he really wanted to be 'pure' and avoid doing this but he is not sure if he has time to make it through the Cascades before the first winter snows. We are going to try and meet up with him sometime in the near future.
Back in the alps..
Late in the afternoon, to avoid the crowds, we decided to take a 2 km unmaintained horse trail which bisected a small part of the loop. It was marked as 'expert hikers only', so we figured that we were somewhat qualified. We didn't see another person on that section for a good reason, the trail essentially went across a huge scree/rock pile. It took nearly a two hours to do 2km. It was worth it though, for a few hours we had a small piece of the alps to ourselves.
One across the scree we found yet another hutte. We bypassed it and went into the rolling hills behind it to find a camp spot. Everything was perfect with this area except that there were cow poops/pies every square meter. It was very difficult to find a spot which was; hidden, flat, dry, and free of cow bombs. Eventually we found our stealth spot and enjoyed a good quiet night.
The next day we hiked back to our car. On they way we met a couple who were carrying a REI tent on one of their packs. We knew that they must be American as REI doesn't really distribute overseas. It turns out that the guy (Ryan) was from the Seattle and his girlfriend (Sabine) was from Austria. We talked for a while and walked back down the mountain together. They were waiting for a bus to the train station at the trail head, so we offered them a ride to town and dropped them off. It was quite possible that Ryan and I were the only Americans in the area that day, something which kind of surprised me considering how many people were there.
ular, everyone had a smaller daypack and was well equipped for the simple few kilometers between huttes. I think we had the largest packs and were the only ones wearing lightweight trail runners. Everyone had normal hiking boots and a surprising number had mountaineering boots complete with insulated upper, rigid sole and toe and heel bales for crampons, they must have laughed at us just as we laughed at them. The trail itself was very easy like a sidewalk, almost always two meters wide and easily graded.
This part of northern Italy has historically been at conflict with Austria for control of the alps, thus after many generations of Austrian and Italian ownership the people here speak both German and Italian. Neither Nathalie or I speak Italian except for a few extremely important words, ex; Pizza, Pesto, Chianti, Spaghetti...
Nathalie, being able to understand German mostly conversed with the locals, unless they spoke English. Hearing all this German made us fell like we were in Austria instead of Italy. We resolved to go further south and find a place where people spoke Italian and the weather was better.
It's apparently an alpine tradition to drink beer at the huttes. Everyone was drinking beer and the menu reflected it, beers were 2.50 euros each and water was 3.50 per liter, the law of supply and demand at work.
A few qualms: water should never cost more than beer and water should also never cost more than autogas. The price of gas in Italy was around 1.30 per liter.
One has to wonder just how they get supplies to these alpine huttes in these spectacular locations. We found out that they are brought up the trails by a tractor, and if the location is too rugged a helicopter is used.
We expected much more natural water flowing in the valleys which we could filter from, but there was none. By the time we made it to the first hutte we were almost out of water and expecting to be able to get some. We didn't want to pay the high prices for water at the hutte so we decided to dry camp in a semi-hidden field just past the hutte. Later that night we saw figures in the distance, and the warm glow of a campfire. Earlier in the day we saw a group of teenagers carrying wood on their packs, we figured that they were the same people. Campfires are definitely not allowed, I was thinking of how rude they were when suddenly I noticed there were two fires and one was moving. The group approached our camp slowly, they were heading directly towards us, we turned out our lights and sat quietly in the dark, hoping they would not see us. In another minute they intercepted our camp, It was the same group of teenagers we saw earlier, they were carrying wooden torches fo!
r light, just like the type you see in Indiana Jones and countless other Hollywood movies. Being a pyromaniac I immediately wanted one.
Their torches seemed to be commercially made, something I have never seen in the states. The group walked by just 20 meters away from us, I am not sure if they saw us or not, if they did they did not acknowledge us at all. The rest of the night was quiet bliss.
The next morning we went to the next hutte to find water. We sat at a table got drinks, appelstrudel (a type of apple pie) and talked with a group of Italians who basically told us the only free water was located in the lakes along the trail. We continued on to the next lakes only 30 minutes away then filled up our water bottles. The weather was strongly overcast with a sea of low clouds clipping the pinnacles and surrounding peaks. It wasn't the photo weather I was hoping for, I really wanted to get some good direct warm sunset light on the pinnacles to show them off. It didn't seem like it was going to happen today either. We saw huge tour groups (60 people) who were bussed up to do some day hiking and touring of the huttes. We spent the day deliberately walking either faster or slower to dodge the crowds. At one point a large group stopped on the trail, looking off into the distance. It was immediately apparent that they were looking at some wild animal, a single !
marmot was sitting about 50 yards out. Being from Washington state where marmots are nearly pests (I call them large rats) I was surprised that this single animal could bring such a large group to a stop. Nathalie explained that seeing wild animals in europe is extremely rare and special, which explained the groups behavior. Though it seems like there is plenty of habitat to support some wildlife, my only guess is that there isn't a proper food chain to support a large quantity or variety of animals. I remember the first time Zack saw a marmot in the Sierras (there are no marmots in the south), I think he asked us if it was a baby bear or something, the situation would be reversed if we were to go to the south and see a possum (opossum?).
Since I mentioned Zack, I should relay that we got an email from him. He should be in Ashland Oregon now, his current plan is to 'flip' to the Canadian border and walk south down to Ashland. I know that he really wanted to be 'pure' and avoid doing this but he is not sure if he has time to make it through the Cascades before the first winter snows. We are going to try and meet up with him sometime in the near future.
Back in the alps..
Late in the afternoon, to avoid the crowds, we decided to take a 2 km unmaintained horse trail which bisected a small part of the loop. It was marked as 'expert hikers only', so we figured that we were somewhat qualified. We didn't see another person on that section for a good reason, the trail essentially went across a huge scree/rock pile. It took nearly a two hours to do 2km. It was worth it though, for a few hours we had a small piece of the alps to ourselves.
One across the scree we found yet another hutte. We bypassed it and went into the rolling hills behind it to find a camp spot. Everything was perfect with this area except that there were cow poops/pies every square meter. It was very difficult to find a spot which was; hidden, flat, dry, and free of cow bombs. Eventually we found our stealth spot and enjoyed a good quiet night.
The next day we hiked back to our car. On they way we met a couple who were carrying a REI tent on one of their packs. We knew that they must be American as REI doesn't really distribute overseas. It turns out that the guy (Ryan) was from the Seattle and his girlfriend (Sabine) was from Austria. We talked for a while and walked back down the mountain together. They were waiting for a bus to the train station at the trail head, so we offered them a ride to town and dropped them off. It was quite possible that Ryan and I were the only Americans in the area that day, something which kind of surprised me considering how many people were there.
Now on to Venice..
Aaron
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